A lot of newbies have been joining the photography board lately. Abi is one of those newbies…and today she offered up her son, Brody Lee, for a “before & after.” Actually…she asked for feedback and I offered to edit – she accepted. Thanks Abi!
This photo of her son is a great “mommy shot,” but the flash has made his skin blotchy and uneven. I’ve corrected that and then given it my special “Ashley treatment.” Don’t ya just wanna pinch those cheeks!
- Adjusted the curves. My output is 93, my input is 73. In PSE, you don’t automatically have this function. In this tutorial, I direct you to Grants’ Tools among others that I regularly use.
- Adjusted the levels. Main levels: 6, 1.18, 255. Green: 6, 1.00, 255. Blue: 6, 1.00, 248.
- Adjusted Brightness/Contrast. Brightness: +10, Contrast +2.
- Added warming filter 85 at 8%.
- Used Pioneer Woman’s Bring Out the Eyes.
- Applied Coffeeshop’s Baby Powder Room to even out his skin tone and tone down the flash spots. Here’s the layers:
- Red Skin (I used this to work on the forehead and lightly around the cheeks) at 60% opacity.
- Smooth Skin (only used around the eyes) at 50% opacity.
- Lighten (around the edges of his face) at 34% opacity.
- Duplicate layer of Lighten adjusted to Multiply (forehead, toning down flash) at 60% opacity.
- Skin Glow at 6%
- No use of the eye pop layers.
- Added texture (from Shadowhouse Creations) and painted off of his little face:
- Cover Texture – Overlay – 52% opacity
- Ghost – Multiply – 70% opacity
- AT-1 – Soft Light – 21%
- Square 1 – Soft Light – 40%
- Stretch Sage Vintage – Soft Light – 50%
- Applied Paint the Moon’s Sugar Cookies action for a little style.
